[governance] ccTLD regulation [WAS Re: Statement made in Plenary]

[Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law]

Well, since you ask...

Goodness knows that no one is currently more removed from what is really 
going on behind the scenes at WSIS than I.  But from a distance, the most 
meritorious concern that governments have is the idea that regulation of 
'their' ccTLD would in some way be constrained by US/California law.

Let me start by saying that in fact I don't accept, as a theoretical 
matter, the idea that a ccTLD 'belongs' to a government.  Details are in 
When We Say US(TM), We Mean It!, 41 Hous. L. Rev. 839 (2004), available at 
www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/ccTLDs-TM.pdf, so I won't repeat 
those arguments here.

But, working from realpolitik considerations, it seems to me that 
giving ccTLD regulation to the ITU or some purpose-made body makes a 
degree of sense.  Certainly more sense, anyway, that it does for gTLDs (a 
group that in my view of the world includes so-called sTLDs). The issues 
about recognition of appropriate delegates of ccTLDs (cf. .iq) are often 
very different from the issues of what company is qualified to run a TLD 
and what the string might be.  They involve very difference competencies 
and have different sorts of political and even economic implications. 
Arguably, they require different sorts of accountability mechanisms too, 
and those are primarily either internal to the country that claims the 
2-letter TLD, or truly international.  And both those things are very 
different from a gTLD.

I could say even more if you required, but I think that's the essence.

It also seems to me that as a compromise position this offers something 
for almost everyone...

On Mon, 3 Oct 2005, Veni Markovski wrote:

> At 10:44 03-10-2005 -0400, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:
>> Isn't the best solution to split off the regulation of ccTLDs for
>> just this reason?
>
> Can you say more on that, please?
>
>

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